Five Torches Deep in Barrowmaze - a retrospective

This is not a review of the Five Torches Deep rules, or the Barrowmaze module, but more my reflection on running a megadungeon using an OSR set of rules.

Barrowmaze was the first true megadungeon I ran. I have previously runned large dungeons that took three or four sessions to play through, but these were always completed in single in-game days. Barrowmaze, however, is such a huge dungeon, with so many locations, that it is impossible for a party to explore all of it in a single day; the version of the dungeon which I ran is already a cut-down version of the original, with many monsters and treasures removed, plus I simplified the process for searching and looting the tombs, and it still took 17 sessions for my players to explore most of it.

While the first few sessions felt novel and different to my players - I am usually a GM who cares little about encumbrance and supplies like food and lamp oil - once they had to develop a system to investigate and loot tombs, things became more routine and mechanical later on in the campaign, and especially when the PCs gained more hit points and did not need to be as cautious as they did at levels 1 or 2. While this may seem rewarding to the players, from the point of view as the GM it was less interesting, as each encounter, while existing in the larger framework of a dungeon with a theme and a history, was essentially independent and isolated from the other encounters.

Also, with Five Torches Deep's system of "Schroedinger's supplies", bringing the exact supplies that you need in the exact quantities became less, well, exacting, and once the PCs have made enough gold this part of the gameplay was mostly auto-piloted. In practice, in-game passage of time and the availability of healing magic became the only determinants of how long the PCs could stay in the dungeon.

From a tactical point of a view, a megadungeon with a theme was fun. The players had to deal with traps which they knew had to be there, but the exact mechanism of which they did not know. The same was also true of monsters: they knew the dead would rise and attack them if they opened the sarcophagus or tried to remove grave goods from the burial niches, but they had to do those things if they wanted to get paid. However, these encounters mostly did not contribute to the narrative of the campaign. This is not necessarily a bad thing, especially in an open-table system common in OSR and which we employed for my campaign, as it allows players to miss sessions and not feel like they cannot keep up with the storyline. But for me, at times it felt a little grind-y.

That is not to say that the Barrowmaze module did not encourage incorporating plotlines into the dungeon-delve. There are two major NPC factions operating in the dungeon, a few more "native" factions (which I ended up omitting), plus several NPC adventuring parties whom the PCs could have allied themselves with or competed against. In addition, several artefacts which were important either in opening certain doors or destroying the MacGuffin were littered throughout the module. The presence of these various parties, and the fact that the two main NPC parties had agendas which they were actively working towards meant that this was a megadungeon with a expiry date: eventually one of the factions will find the MacGuffin, and then things will get really bad for everyone else. This to me is a strong point for the design of the module, but it does require wisdom on the part of the GM on information management: let the players learn about the true purpose of the NPC factions too early, and they may become too focused on stopping them at the expense of exploring the dungeon; let them know too late, and things will just become a big showdown. In retrospect I should have given my players more information about the two NPC factions and perhaps having the PCs run into the NPCs more often, giving them more a sense that there is some constant scrabble for territory.

Over all I think the concept of Barrowmaze - a megadungeon with a reason for being what it is, populated by monsters with a reason for being inside, and being explored by several factions with competing interests - is a very good one. To fully exploit the potential of the set-up, however, requires a GM who knows what he wants out of the module, and how to achieve it.

The dungeon being as big as it is, PCs are expected to level up several times as they explore more and more of it, and this is something that I did not account for. In my other campaigns, I usually ask that my players keep track of things like gold and equipment earlier in the campaign, but when the PCs before richer and more experienced in adventuring, I tend to hand-wave these aspects. Usually, the scope of the adventure also shift from more low-level play like robbing tombs and fighting goblins, to higher-level missions like thwarting villains with devious plans and powerful henchmen. This becomes harder to implement in a megadungeon setting, or at least I feel I did not manage to make this transition.

So will I run another megadungeon again? Well, it was fun, but I will almost certainly not do so with this same group of players. The experience of starting as a level 1 tomb-robber and slowly working your way up to an experienced adventurer with lots of cool items is classic D&D, but I am not sure is one that players will enjoy going through again. Nevertheless, I don't rule out the possibility that I may run the module again for another group of players.

As for Five Torches Deep, there are many elements of the rules which I like and will incorporate into my standard, baseline 5E play, but I feel that the spell list is too limited and resulted magic-using PCs having the same repertoire of spells.

Overall it has been a learning experience for me as a GM, and if you are looking for a megadungeon to run, Barrowmaze is certainly worth looking at.

Chronicles of the Adventurers' Guild #17

This is the account I received from the companions of Tamira Reid, who on the 18th day of Ostar, in the year 1842, descended into the crypts beneath the Ashen Hills. I hereby record their names for posterity: Kimly of Forge, Leowe Blackclaw, also of Forge, Madian Moonridge, of the University in Greyhaven, and Moonshadow the Elf (see PC profiles here), with the orc Gamdar as their bearer.

Entering the crypts, the party came upon two dragon hybrid sentries, and by means of a beguiling spell were able to interrogate them and learn of their purpose: they had entered the crypts to seek out an undead dragon, animated by the Heart of Nodros, whom they called Ossirex, and whom they worshiped as a god. They had tricked a party of mercenaries to aid them in their quest, passing themselves off as tomb robbers, but had in fact been searching for the lair of this beast, until they were thwarted in their progress by the Cultists of Nodros. They had but recently found their way into the hall wherein Ossirex had been trapped; when the mercenaries saw the undead dragon, they realised that they had been deceived, but were forbidden to leave, and instead made to excavate a tunnel to the surface to free Ossirex, that he might appear before all the dragon hybrid and unite them.

The party then resolved to used subterfuge to lure the two other dragon hybrid in the cabal out of the lair, that they may be overcomed individually, but it seemed that the magic user among them were able to break the beguiling enchantment over their brethren, and they came silently upon our heroes and sought to ambush them. A melee ensued, during which three of the dragon hybrid were slain, and the orc Gamdar fled.

Calling upon the blessings of Kellos onto herself and her fellows, Tamira led the pursuit of the remaining villain, their leader, to the hall. There, she called out for the mercenaries to lay down their arms and leave, promising them safety and the mercy of Kellos if they did, and they did so, abandoning their former master.

Entering the hall, they did battle with the dragon hybrid and Ossirex, the great undead dragon. And although with his foul sorcery Ossirex was able to raise countless skeletal warriors to aid him, our heroes were able to overcome them with the grace of Kellos.

Tamira herself plucked the stone Heart of Nodros from the chest of Ossirex, but its evil burned her hands with a coldness. Now Kellos spoke to Tamira, and told her that the Heart must be destroyed with the mace of Druentes, which Tamira wielded, but the wielder would be killed in the act too.

Despite the beseeching of her companions, Tamira resolved to do so, ignoring their pleas, and so sacrificed herself for the good of all Terrinoth.

Her remains were faithfully gathered by Leowe Blackmane, who, stricken with grief, became a blasphemer of Kellos, blaming him for not returning Tamira to life.

So the tale was told to me by the companions of Tamira, and I did behold with mine own eyes the skull of Ossirex, which was terrible in aspect.

And it is thus that I beg our holy church to build upon this site a shrine honouring our late Sister in Kellos, that her deed and the grace of Kellos may be known to all who pass.

Brother Othar, Priest of Kellos

Prepping and Running the Game

The account above of the last session in our Barrowmaze campaign is mostly false, but what I imagine the PCs would have told Brother Othar upon their return to the guild, and how he would have recorded it.

The party did come upon the dragon hybrid sentries, and they did use Charm spells on them, and learned that they had not in fact set the guild on fire (the death cultists did, but the players did not have a way to know that), and also learn their true purpose for coming to the dungeon. And then things went south from there.

They came up with the idea of using the Charmed dragon hybrids to lure more of their fellows out so that they may be tackled individually, before the party takes on Ossirex. As they needed only one of the dragon hybrid to make the plan work, they had to decide on what to do with the other one. Some of the players wanted to kill him, which I told them was something which Tamira, being a cleric of Kellos, would not agree to. In the ensuing argument, Tamira's player did not actively try to prevent this from happening, and Moonshadow's player decided that he would simply stab the dragon hybrid while the rest of the party was arguing.

I decided that Gamdar, who had volunteered to be their bearer, was so outraged by the unnecessary killing that he dropped all of the party's gear and started to walk off... and that's when they Charmed him too, tied him up, and knocked him out.

The party sent the remaining dragon hybrid back to the lair with the command to lure the others out. I decided that their leader, a sorcerer, would see through the ruse and dispel the magic, and in turn use the Invisibility and Fury Fire spells (a fireball centred around the caster) to ambush the PCs instead. In the resulting fight the PCs took a lot of damage, but were able to kill all but the leader, who fled back to the hall.

When Tamira tried to heal the party, I told her that her spells weren't working. It wasn't long before my players realised that I had ruled that Kellos had withdrawn his spells from Tamira. Tamira's player, being an old school gamer, knew what to do: he made her set up and impromptu shrine and prayed for guidance.

Meanwhile, we got into an OOC argument about whether Kellos was justified in doing what he did. The players argued that the dragon hybrids' plan to release an undead dragon would result in many deaths, and for that they already deserved death; also, in their circumstances they could not risk having a prisoner around. I argued that the PCs could have tied up the dragon hybrid, and then gone on to destroy Ossirex, which would have neutralised the threat without them having to kill a defenceless prisoner.

Eventually I let Kellos give Tamira her powers back, on a "probational" basis given the threat they all faced, but by the the mood at the table was already soured.

With her powers restored, Tamira was able to buff the party really well, and the boss fight turned out to be less exciting than I had hoped for. There was some interaction with the surroundings, as the players tried to bring the ceiling down on the skeletons - I had made some rubble counters for this expressed purpose as I imagined Ossirex would use his tail to sweep down pillars and bring sections of the ceiling down to separate the PCs - but I had the feeling that our hearts were not really in it.

Things got worse after the fight, as the players now had to decide what to do with the Heart of Nodros. I told them that Tamira was able to intuit by holding the mace of Druentes that the mace could destroy the Heart, but the wielder would be killed in the process. Tamira's player was keen to destroy the Heart there and then, while others argued for bringing it back to Brother Othar and perhaps subsequently to the church in Vynevale. Then they came up with the idea of Charming the bound Gamdar and making him do the deed for them instead so none of the PCs would have to die.

As this discussion went on Moonshadow and Kimly's players moved their characters away from Tamira as they saw what would be coming, and when it seemed like Leowe and Madian would force the issue, Tamira's player had her destroy the Heart before they could get their hands on it. There was a blinding explosion which brought more of the ceiling down, and when the dust had settled the Heart could not be told apart from the rubble.

Leowe salvaged as much of Tamira's remains as he could, hoping that the church could resurrect her, but they were unable to. We ended the campaign with Tamira being made a saint and a shrine of her being set up at the former site of the guild, and Leowe carrying Tamira's remains in his backpack and vowing to find a way to bring her back to life again.

I am deeply disappointed with how the session went and how the campaign ended. I am not yet sure when things began to spin out of my control, and when I could have effectively steered the game away from the way it went.

Charm and Command spells are always problematic in an RPG, and I do wonder if I should ban PCs from having access to them in the future.

Obviously the players saw the situations presented to them as tactical problems to be solved, and not moral choices to be made, which points to a failure on the part of the GM to present the world in a fashion that encouraged them, or rather their characters, to view the world as a place where the killing of defenceless people was something that even hardened adventurers would not do.

There is definitely a lesson to be learned here for me, although I cannot yet tell what it is.

I hope to do a retrospective of the campaign in the future, not so much on how the campaign went, but what I learned about running an open-table megadungeon using an OSR set of rules.

Chronicles of the Adventurers' Guild #16

On the 17th day of Ostar, guild members Kelso, Kimly, Leowe, and Erik, (see PC profiles here) with the bearer Karl in employment, and accompanied by the mendicant monk Brother Tuck, returned to the southeastern section of the underground complex.

Here, they entered the south door in the chamber with coloured walls, and defeated the undead within, and recovered the grave goods, which included a fine bronze sword.

Then, returning to the eastern corridors, they explored the four side chambers, each of which they learned house a bronze skull upon a plinth, and each of which was protected by an elemental guardian. The party was able to defeat the elemental guardians in turn and retrieve the four bronze skulls, which when placed into the niches in the central bronze door, caused it to open.

The bronze door lead into a large hall, within which was a single sarcophagus and much grave goods contained in earthen urns. A ghostly form arose from the sarcophagus when the party attempted to recover the grave goods, and began to attack them with elemental magic, but the members were able to defeat it and recover the grave goods, which included a golden sceptre with four precious stones set upon its head.

Grave goods recovered were assessed to be 251 Gros in value, of which 84 Gros was disbursed to the members according to the terms of the contract. Member Kimly purchased the bronze sword at 66 Gros, and member Kelso purchased the sceptre at 66 Gros.

Addendum:

On the night of the 17th day of Ostar, the guild hall, as well as the Kellos chapel nearby were set on fire by unknown arsonists. Most guild members and staff were able to evacuate the hall, but bearer Karl died in the fire, and many others suffered from the effects of inhalation the noxious smoke.

I was able to salvage with my person these chronicles, and Harnold was able to keep safe the Guild ledger and much of the guild's treasury, but much of the sundries and supplies were consumed by the flames.

When we sent for help at Fort Rodric, we learned that the garrison had been taken ill, with tainted food being the suspected cause.

Our pressing need now is to care for those who are stricken, which we do with the aid of Brother Othar and his guests from Vynevale, but it seems several guild members wish to undertake a final expedition to the barrows, for what goal I know not.

Signed,

Jeras, Guild Chronicler

Prepping and Running the Game

This is the penultimate session of the campaign, and it happened that the four players who could attend are the same who will be in the Sorcery! sequel campaign, so we played a short session before going on to create characters for that campaign.

There were no healer PC available, so my players petitioned me for a hireling healer, and I decided to conjure up a monk to join them.

The session was filled with shenanigans, such as when Leowe inadvertently caused damage to the other party members when he used Gust of Force on a Fire Elemental, and Kelso returned the favour on his turn, and when the other members pranked Leowe by slamming the door and leaving him alone with an Air Elemental in a room instead of going in to help him as they agreed.

The delve ended with the party getting their hands on two magical items: a flaming sword, and a sceptre that grants the holder resistance to elemental damage.

In the final part of the session I set the lead-up to the finale session: visitors from Vynevale - Brothers Grimmel and Berkin (see here), accompanied by two justicars - bring grave news from the holy city; the copy of inscription sent to Vynevale by Brother Othar was recognised to be the same script as an ancient manuscript, which told the story of one Druentes, a follower of Eusodes (Yasoda), and the company he led into the crypts of Nodros cultists in a quest to destroy the Heart of Nodros, a magical artifact that gave them the power to raise undead. Druentes was betrayed and killed, but his follwoers were able to chase the cultists to the northeast sector of the crypts, and collapse the tunnel there, trapping them and the Heart of Nodros. Druentes was buried in the crypts as he requested in his dying words, that he may watch over the evil in case they should rise again.

Although they did not know the true intent of the dragonkin and his party, the players were able to put two and two together and realise that the Heart of Nodros and the fact that the Ashen Hills was once the site of a great battle during the Dragon Wars and therefore contained perhaps many remains of dragons made for a bad combination.

Brothers Othar and Grimmel then beseeched the PCs to return to the underground complex and recover the Heart of Nodros before someone else did. The players briefly considered returning straightaway, but decided to do so the next morning.

This allowed me to proceed with my plan and have the death cultists set the halls on fire in retaliation for the PCs' part in their ousting. I then told the players that one out of their two PCs is incapacitated from smoke inhalation, and they would each have to decide which character to use for the final session.

I am hoping to be able to get six players around the table for our finale, which should be one big fight, after which we will convert the surviving characters to 5E, and archive them for a future campaign. We will then hopefully be able to have a discussion and decide on what campaign to play after the Sorcery! campaign sequel.

Dwarrowdeep Kickstarter

Being a dwarf sucks. You delve too deep *one time*, and now that's what everybody remembers about your people...

From the creator of Barrowmaze comes a new kickstarter: Dwarrowdeep.

Now neither the name nor the premise of the megadungeon sound innovative, but the author hints at a plot twist... But the point of Old School, as least as far as I am concerned, is not doing something *new*, but doing something old *well*.

I enjoyed Barrowmaze, even though I did not run the dungeon 'as is' - I mean, no one can actually run this thing 'as is', right?

What I liked about Barrowmaze is how there is a logic to the whole megadungeon, from the whole reason why the dungeon was there, to why there were different 'districts' to the dungeon, and why the monsters are there, as well as NPC factions with their own motivations.

And now it looks like Greg Gillespie is promising something like that again: a megadungeon with a reason and coherence.

I am still on the fence on this one: delivery date of Aug 2022 is too far even for me to plan for, but a lost dwarven home is something that you can drop into almost any fantasy world - heck, I can drop it into Magnamund, Thedas, *and* Terrinoth, and have the campaign link back to one or more PC in each of the worlds!

Chronicles of the Adventurers Guild #15

On the 14th day of Ostar, guild members Aksinya, Erik, Folly, Francis, Grak, Kelso, Kimly, Leowe, Madian, Moonshadow, Piper, and Tamira (see PC profiles here) explored the underground complex via barrow #35. Exploring to the west, they came upon a series of chambers, guarded by undead, which they defeated, and recovered much grave goods.

Grave goods recovered were assessed to be 525 Gros in value, of which 131 Gros was disbursed to the members according to the terms of the contract.

Signed,

Jeras, Guild Chronicler

On the 16th day of Ostar, guild members Tamira, Madian, Kimly, and Leowe, with the bearer Karl in employment, explored the underground complex via barrow#16. Exploring west and then south, they came upon a chamber within which were the crushed remains of tomb robbers. The stones upon the walls of the chamber animated and took the form of men, and attacked the party when they sought to cross the chamber, but they were able to overcome the enemies.

Proceeding further south, they came upon a fork in passage. To the west they came upon a bronze door, upon which were four niches, each carved with a different symbol, which they surmised to represent the four elements. To the east the passage led to a square room, within which was a bronze statue of a four-armed demon. The four walls were painted each a different colour: blue, yellow, red, and brown. There were a sealed door on the north, east, and south walls.

The party broke down the eastern door, and found within it a single sarcophagus. When they sought to open the sarcophagus, a ghostly form appeared and attacked them, but they were able to defeat it. Within the sarcophagus the found the remains of an individual with much grave goods. The party then broke through the northern door, and found again a single sarcophagus. Once more a ghostly undead rose to attack them, and once more they defeated it, but member Tamira was grievously wounded in the fight. The party recovered the rich grave goods within the sarcophagus, and returned to the guild.

Grave goods recovered were assessed to be 186 Gros in value, of which 64 Gros was disbursed to the members according to the terms of the contract.

Signed,

Jeras, Guild Chronicler

Prepping and Running the Game

This session was a continuation from the last one, although we had to retcon a little because of player availability.

The party came upon the fight between the Dragon cultists and the Death cultists, and a confused melee ensued, made worse by the use of the darkness spell by the Death cult leader. Eventually the PCs were able to gain the upper hand and drive the Death cultists away, but they were able to flee through the room with zombies, which delayed the pursuing Dragon cultists enough for them to escape.

The two victorious parties then looted the belongings left behind - I used one of the random tables from Knock! #1 as a random loot table - and I had the Dragonkin rogue from the Dragon cult gather the grave goods and divide them into four piles, and then inviting the PCs to pick three of them as their cut of the loot. This was done to show the players that the Dragon cultists were either stand-up fellows, or else not really interested in money...

It was a massive haul, but divided among 11 PCs, it didn't come up to much per character.

One of the players was still fixated on the idea that the undead woman in the underground pool was what the cultists were after, and managed to convince the others to break the terms of the agreement with the Dragon cultists and make a night-time trip to the cavern, a sector that was technically out of bounds to the PCs, to search it more thoroughly.

I was totally unprepared for this - I have told them that the area was rumoured to be crawling with undead after sundown, and no one in their right mind would travel there after dark, and assumed they would never do so either. During the time they were discussing this I realised I could use one of the mechanics in Five Torches Deep to resolve the journey. This mechanic was intended to allow a GM to resolve a session if there wasn't enough time to play a party's journey to the base, and involved having each character make a single roll to see how many hit points he or she lost. As we were using this to roll for the forward journey, this meant some of the PCs started the delve with many hit points down, and had to cast healing spells, which had the risk of the caster losing the ability to cast spells for the actual delve. Fortunately for them, that did not happen.

The players then went through in detail how they searched the cavern, and I had to come up with something quick to not disappoint them. I decided that the undead woman was the ghost of a woman strangled and sacrificed in the pool, like a bog mummy. The party was able to recover her skeleton, which they decided to bring back to the guild. The player now wants to see if he can somehow resurrect the woman with the aid of the NPC cleric...

The following adventuring day the players decided to stick to the agreement with the Dragon cultists and explore the part of the dungeon that now "belongs" to the guild. This section of the dungeon features an elemental evil theme, so the things they discover there all featured the same theme.

The eastern branch of the passage actually leads to five other corridors, including the one with the bronze door with niches. The other four corridors each led to a room that held one of the keys to the bronze door. Strangely, instead of walking down the other four corridors, my players decided to explore the western corridor, and came upon the room with the coloured walls and statue. They at first assumed that the statue was the key to opening the bronze door, but could not figure out how that worked. Then when one player had his character touch one of the walls, I described how the pigment rubbed off onto his hand. The next thing I knew I had four PCs, each with one hand covered in pigment inside one of the niches. It was a face-palm moment, and I told the players that had this been a Gygaxian dungeon, we would be having four one-handed PCs right now.

That said, I am happy with how they got into the OSR mode and explored various ways of interacting with the environment I described to try to solve the puzzles they faced (or for that matter, created for themselves...). Most of their initiatives were not rewarded, however, as I could not reasonably 'say yes' to them and spin a whole new thread to the campaign and still keep everything on schedule for a finale in two more sessions. The other issue was that XPs in OSR was tied to challenges, and had I allowed their solutions to work, it would not have been fair (and it would not have felt fair to them) to award the PCs enough XPs for them to level up before the final session.

The chasing of the red herring (the strangled woman) was an interesting one. I wonder if this was a side-effect of using a pre-made module. Had I designed the adventure on my own from ground up, perhaps I would have been 'economical' and omitted any element that did not relate to the main plot.

Unable to figure out the bronze door, they decided to just fall back on what they knew best: break down doors, kill undead, take their stuff. They were able to clear two of the three crypts in the square room before they ran out of spells and return to the guild, which was perfect for me - hopefully they will complete this section of the dungeon the next session, which will allow me to end that session with the big reveal, and set up the final session.

Chronicles of the Adventurers Guild #14

Prepping and Running the Game

This week's report takes a slightly different format for a couple of reasons: 1. the PCs are unlikely to be truthful in their report to Guild Chronicler Jeras, and 2. we ended the game mid-delve, which we have not done before.

A brief recap of the session.

The PCs decided that they would go along with the tomb-robbers' plan to launch a co-ordinated attack on the Death cultists.

To accommodate the fact that 12 PCs were in on the scheme but only four players were at the table, we had the players who were present send their characters into the dungeon, while the rest stood guard at the known exits to cut off any retreat.

However, as Kelso's player was convinced that the strange woman on the island in the underground pool was the quarry the dragonkin are after, the PCs proposed a start time of 1pm, to allow them to try to find out her true nature. Unfortunately for them, the woman was just a "monster of the room", and cost the PCs a little resources.

Moving back to the main mission, the PCs moved through the door they had barricaded the last session, and managed to find the secret door that led into a room that would have led to the cultists' lair.

The room was guarded by ten zombies and an Idolic Deity, a monster from the Tome of Beast. The flying statuette had the power of casting an aura that eroded a divine caster's faith, and the two strongest members in the party were nerfed and fell back. Here the players fell back to OSR thinking and threw a fishing net over the statuette and wrestled it down and bashed it to bits, while keeping the zombies at bay with a area-control spell.

Since they did not clear the room of the zombies, however, they failed to find the secret door that would have led to the cultists' west flank. Already late for the attack, they had to rely on their map and execute a wide march to the south and then east, before finally coming upon the passage that led to the cultists' east flank by following the sound of battle.

As one of the players had to leave early, and as I had not expected this development, we ended the session about half an hour early, just as they PCs are running towards the fight.

This gives me a week to plan the fight that we will open the session with. I am still not sure how to do this: on the one hand the Death cultists are outnumbered and they have a clear route for retreat (something which I was worried about before this development), yet on the other hand I would hate to have ended a session early in anticipation of a big fight... and then make it an anti-climatic rout.

Well, I have a week to plan for this, so let's see what happens!

Chronicles of the Adventurers Guild #13

On the 12th day of Ostar, Guild members Madian, Kimly, Tamira, Folly, and Leowe (see PC profiles here), with the bearer Karl in employment, explored the subterranean tombs. Entering via barrow #20, they came upon a long hall, wherein they found the remains of several tomb robbers. Thus forewarned, the party entered the chamber, whereupon the pillars animated and took the forms of men, and attacked them, but were overcomed.

Passing north still, they came into a square chamber and surprised two cultists within. The party sought to capture the cultists, but they refused to be taken, and a skirmish ensued. The cultists were soon joined by skeletal warriors, which entered the chamber from the corridor to the north, and also by several more cultists entering from a corridor to the east.

The party was able to hold off the skeletal warriors and repel the cultists, who retreated under the cover of a magical darkness. The party defeated the skeletal warriors, and using the remnants of the stone creatures in the the hall they had passed, blocked up the door to the east.

Proceeding further north, they came upon a passage leading to the east that had collapsed; here they found signs that the collapsed passage was being cleared.

Passing further north, they found that the passage turned to the east, and continued for several hundred feet, and terminated in a natural cavern, within which was an underground pond. At the near side of the pond was a boat. At the far end of the cavern was a small landing, beyond which a tunnel could be discerned. In the middle of the pond was a rocky outcrop.

The boat being small and unable to take the weight of all six persons, the party resolved to cross the pond in turn. In the first passing, they discerned the form of a woman with long hair seated upon the rocky outcrop. As the boat neared the outcrop, a force began to pull it towards the outcrop. The party was able to overcome this with vigourous rowing, and upon reaching the far shore they found long strands of hair on the hull. Then, steering as far from the outcrop as practicable, the party made further crossings, and the whole party was able to reach the far bank unharmed.

Entering the tunnel there, the party emerged within barrow #49, which they found to be already plundered.

No grave goods were recovered.

Signed,

Jeras, Guild Chronicler

Prepping and Running the Game

I was really excited that we managed to get five players for this session, as I had planned for this to be the big fight scene where the PCs and the dragon cultists launch a co-ordinated attack on the death cultists; unfortunately, plans never survive contact with PCs...

We began the session by playing out the negotiation between the dragon cultists - posing as plain tomb-robbers - and the PCs.

The dragon cultists were represented by their leader (a dragon-kin), the dragon-kin barbarian whom the PCs have met in an earlier session, and three of their human mercenaries. The dragon-kin proposed a co-ordinated attack on the death cultists' lair, with the PCs attacking from the west, and they attacking from the east. I made the very generous terms of leaving exploration rights to all the surface barrows to the PCs afterwards, plus all of the underground complex except for the quadrant north and east of the cultists' lair, as well as half of whatever loot they will take from the cultists, and sharing of whatever documents they recover.

The PCs were naturally suspicious of the terms, but I had decided beforehand that they would not be able to read the dragon-kin's faces. Still, this did not prevent them from asking for even better terms!

I had the barbarian speak to the leader in their own language, which ruffled the PCs' feathers, but they agreed to give the PCs three-quarters of the cultists' loot, which caused furrowed brows in the human mercenaries.

The players were very keen to learn the dragon-kin's interest in the northeast quadrant of the complex, and wanted to know what item exactly it was that they hoped to find there, but I gave the Sauron-ic reply that it is a "trifle that he fancies", which of course convinced no one. 

While they did not fully trust the dragon-kin, the PCs agreed to the temporary alliance, with no real intent to keeping to the terms.

The attack was planned for the 13th of the month, as the merchant bringing supplies from Tamalir was expected to arrive on the 12th, and the dragon cultists wanted to be well-prepared.

I expected the players to wait for the attack, but they surprised me by choosing to launch another expedition on the 12th, hoping to find out where exactly the death cultists' lair was. As they already had some idea of where the lair was, they quickly came upon the cultists' sentries, which triggered a fight. With five PCs and quite a few of them at level 4, their experience in dungeon-fighting and powers allowed them to quickly dominate the fight, forcing the cultists to retreat.

Their decision to blockade the door to the east essentially sealed the cultists' access to the northeast, a sector of the complex which is of interest to them. This really pushes them up against a wall, as even if they can easily unblock the door, the room is the main access to their lair and connects that to the sector they want to explore.

I now have a couple of tough decisions to make as the GM and the death cult leader: did the PCs' actions tip the cultists off to a possible impending attack? Will the cultists launch a surprise attack on the dragon cultists pre-emptively, with the aim of taking over their lair?

I have a few days to think this through...

Chronicles of the Adventurers Guild #12

On the 9th day of Ostar, guild members Francis, Kelso, Moonshadow, and Partha (see PC profiles here), with the bearer Karl in employment, returned to the underground chambers, with the purpose of recovering the grave goods from within the chamber of salted corpses.

They overcame the undead in the first chamber, and recovered the grave goods within.

Exploring the next chamber in the corridor, they found a silver statuette upon a plinth in the far end, and the bodies of three tomb-robbers upon the floor, which was covered with a thin layer of fine silt. The party surmised that the tomb-robbers had perished from some trap within the chamber, and with the means of a rope with a loop made in the end, successfully dislodged the statuette from its position, whereupon a stone door descended over the doorway, and the chamber began to be flooded by water that came from a hidden port in the wall. After a period of time has passed, there came sound from behind the door, and when it stopped the door opened, and they party found the room drained but still wet.

Exploring the next room in the corridor, they came upon a strange portal in the far wall, which appeared as a vertical surface of a dark pool of water. The party was able to gather water from the portal, but were unable to determine if it led to some other locale.

Therefore leaving the portal, they came to the next room, and found within several plinths, upon which were embalming tools. In the corner of the room was a pile of salt, which too the form of a giant man and attacked them when they entered the room. The party resolved to transport the water from the portal to the chamber, which eventually caused the salt to dissolve, and were able to recover the implements within.

Passing then to the corridor to the north, they came upon another chamber of salted undead, which they overcame, and claim the grave goods within.

Passing further north, they broke into three more chambers, which appeared similar to the one before, but the remains within which did not rise to attack them.

Finally, turning west and then south, they came upon a chamber with decorated doors. Within the chamber was a single sarcophagus, the occupant of which rose to attack them when they opened it.  Unable to overcome the undead, the party retired to the guild.

Grave good recovered were assessed to be 525 Gros (!) in value, of which 175 Gros was disbursed to the members, according to the terms of the contract.

On the 10th day of Ostar, guild members Kimly, Tamira, and Erik, with tbearer Karl in employment, explored the chambers underground. Returning to the chamber with the decorated door, they vanquished the undead within, and recovered much grave goods.

Turning then north they passed along a long corridor that eventually turned east, and entered a flooded chamber with a doorway on the south wall. When they entered the chamber with the purpose of passing through the south door, they were attacked by animated skeletons which had hid within the water, which they were able to vanquish.

Passing then through the southern door, they came upon a large flooded chamber with faded frescoes upon the walls, which suggested that the chamber was used for some religious rites which involved the immersion of the worshippers into the water. Here the water took the shape of a giant and attacked them, but it was defeated.

The party then retraced their steps, with the purpose of exploring to the east, but passing a junction guild member Erik discerned a hidden portal upon a wall. Entering the portal, they found themselves in a long corridor leading to the west. The party passed into the corridor with caution, and were able to defend themselves against skeletal warriors that issued forth from hidden niches along the walls. 

Overcoming these undead, the party came into a large chamber, the walls of which were painted with figures of men and ships. At the far end of the room sat an undead warrior upon a throne of stone. As they were already wounded and weary at this point, the party left the room, and returned to the guild.

Grave goods recovered were valued at 5 Gros, of which 18 Gros was disbursed to the party according to the terms of the contract.

Prepping and Running the Game

This session was the last one before our Chinese New Year break, which means there are a projected 6 more sessions to the end of the campaign.

The two days of exploration took place during the same session, with the first day garnering the PCs the largest haul in the history of the campaign. This happened partly because I made a mistake in my planning, putting four identical rooms stocked with the salt mummies. It seemed like a good idea when I was planning the dungeon, but when I realised that the repetition was going to be boring and tedious, I removed the undead and granted them grave goods of lower value instead. It took them some time still to break into and sift through the grave goods and pick out the valuable bits though.

The room with the water trap was initially supposed to be sealed, but I realised that as it stood it would not have been an interesting encounter for the players. I needed to 'telegraph' the existence of a trap, and I figured a good way of doing this was to show the remains of others who had fallen prey to it. This worked, and gave the players a way to bypass the trap and still claim the treasure within.

The magical portal of water actually leads to a pool in one of the barrows overground, but the players were wisely wary and did not attempt to pass through it, although they did tie a rope around the waist of one of the dead tomb-robbers and throw him inside. What I did not expect the players to do with the portal was for them to use it as a limitless reservoir, which they used to flood the subsequent chamber and neutralise the salt golem which had a high Challenge Rating (and hence more treasure). This clever weaponisation of a feature of the dungeon was partly responsible for the huge haul they made.

Their abnormally large haul meant that we now have more characters at level 4, which will be important for the next phase of the campaign.

The expedition on the second day was more typical. I revealed the existence of a hidden door to a section of the dungeon here by having one of the dwarven PCs notice that there was a part of the map that was blank, which did not make sense. Hopefully this will prompt the players to start looking at 'blank' sections of the map and searching for secret doors more carefully.

I ended the session by having Gamdar, the orc tavern-hand who is secretly in league with the dragon cultists approach the non-human, non-dwarven, and non-Kellos-worshipping members of the guild to arrange a meeting with the head of the dragon cultists.

The dragon cultists, posing as merely common tomb-robbers, offered the PCs an alliance: they knew the location of the death cultists' lair within the dungeon, and proposed a combined attack on them to eliminate them, and thereafter they and the guild members could partition the dungeon between themselves to avoid conflict.

I then gave the players the two weeks until our next session to discuss among themselves which PCs if any would take up the offer. This means that the next session may see a large and challenging battle, and the levelling up during this session would put the PCs in a better position to fight that battle.

The reason why I want the battle to be challenging is because I want the PCs to level up quicker over the next few sessions, ideally with most if not all PCs reaching level 7 as they enter the finale session so they can have their second class feature.

With the approach of the end of the campaign I face the question of what to do with the PCs who survive the final battle. Five Torches Deep is rather limited in PC progression, especially in the list of available spells, which I feel is an important part of any fantasy RPG game. Perhaps I will let all the PCs convert to their equivalent class in 5E, retaining the number of XPs that they end the campaign on.

Chronicles of the Adventurers Guild #11

On the 8th Day of Ostar, guild members Kimly, Tamira, and Leowe, with the bearer Karl in employment, descended into the underground complex via Barrow #16.

Proceeding to the chamber where the guild members had previously been driven out of by creatures of stone (see here), the members were able to overcome the stone creatures and recover the grave goods within the chamber, and bearer Karl discovered a secret door that led northwards, into the flooded chamber which the the members had earlier also explored (see here).

The wraith once more appeared, and according to member Tamira conversed with her in her mind, calling her a worshipper of the god Yasoda, and correctly discerning the mace which she wielded as the one recovered from the tomb of Druentes (see here), whom he named his companion and whom he claimed to have betrayed many years ago, in conspiracy with the cultists of Nordros. The wraith implored the party to find and vanquish the followers of Nordros, and so lay the undead to rest.

Invigorated by the encounter, the party then proceeded north to the chamber behind the large stone doors, and confronted the fearsome undead within. While they battled the undead, a hidden door in the corridor behind them opened and a skeletal warrior came forth, so that the party were fighting to their fore and their rear. With the power of the mace, Tamira was able to vanquish the undead, and recover the grave goods stored within large urns inside the chamber.

The party then explored westwards, into parts previously unexplored by the guild, and came upon a long corridor with several doors upon one side. Entering the first chamber, they found within many wall niches, each with a desiccated corpse with an urn by its feet. When the party sought to recover the grave goods, several of the corpses rose and attacked them. So dry was the air within the chamber, that soon the guild members were overcome with thirst and had to retreat from the room. Their weariness being so great, the party returned to the guild.

Grave good recovered were assessed to be 140 Gros in value, of which 48 Gros was disbursed to the members according to the terms of the contract.

Signed,

Jeras, Guild Chronicler

Prepping and Running the Game

There were only three PCs this session, but with Tamira now at level 4, the spells she now had and the magical mace she now wielded made the party so powerful, they were able to defeat two encounters which they had to run from previously.

The encounter with the wraith is something which I had been looking forward to, as it provided plot exposition that now gave the party some purpose other than looting. In particular, PCs who are worshippers of Kellos now have more reason to seek out and defeat the cultists.

It was interesting to see how, emboldened by the wraith's story, the players decided to seek out the undead behind the large stone doors, which they had indicated as "big scary undead" on their map after fleeing from it in an earlier session. In this fight I was taken by surprise at how powerful the cleric spells were against an undead opponent, and what I anticipated to be a rather tough fight was over in three rounds or so, but not before Kimly took a lot of damage from the skeletal warrior.

The last portion of the complex they explored is a separate section from the parts they have explored so far; the culture here practised salt-mummification, and the undead here had desiccating powers, which was surprisingly effective against the party. The players seem to have assumed that the desiccating property was a function of the room and not the undead, and I did not correct them.

Outside of the dungeon, I decided that the death cultists' contact within the guild, the tavern-maid Mertha, had also fled the place, fearing that her identity would soon be discovered. I had one of the NPCs speculate that her departure had something to do with Tosot's abscondment, which the players did not question.

The next session is scheduled for next week, after which we will take a break for Chinese New Year, and after that there will be just six sessions before we end the campaign and play Season 2 of the Sorcery! campaign.

The pace of the campaign had been slower than I anticipated, and now I am planning to give it a little push by having the dragon cultists approach the PCs with a proposition for an alliance. This will lead the PCs, should the accept the proposition, into more direct conflict with the cultists, leading them closer to the final showdown that will conclude the campaign. I plan to make this proposition at the end of the next session, which will hopefully allow the players to discuss it via messaging in the following weeks.

What happens after the finale? I had not thought about that until this moment, but I imagine it is possible for the players to keep their characters, and perhaps convert them into 5E characters for a subsequent campaign. While I appreciate the supplies and encumbrance rules in Five Torches Deep, the game is limited in other ways, and especially so in the spell lists. Some of the mechanics can of course be ported over from 5TD, such as the death roll.

Chronicles of the Adventurers Guild #10

On the 7th day of Ostar, guild members Findal, Grimmson, and Helmond asked for and received the Guildmaster's leave to quit the guild. All accounts have been verified and closed.

On this day guild members Tamira, Leowe, Madian, Piper, and Grak (see PC profiles here), with the bearer Karl in employment, returned to the underground complex via barrow #20, the skeletons guarding the way below having been cleared by guild members Brodir, Renard, Torvik, and Ornulf.

Turning south to the large chamber wherein the broken stele was found, they vanquished the skeletal warriors there, and broke through the door on the southern wall to enter into the chamber, wherein was found a sarcophagus of white marble. Entombed within (according to the inscription upon the door and cover of the sarcophagus, as translated by guild member Madian) were the remains of one Druentes, a "paladin of Yasoda, Giver of Gifts". The party recovered from within the sarcophagus a blue-steel mace of dwarven craft.

Turning then north and then east, the party then broke into and entered in turn two chambers opposite each other, finding within each a single sarcophagus, each of which held a single undead, which they defeated, although guild member Piper was seized by the second and fell down as though dead, and had to be revived.

The hour being late, the party returned to the guild. Grave goods recovered were assessed to be 53 Gros in value, of which 20 Gros was disbursed to the members according to the contract. The steel mace was assessed to be 84 Gros in value, and sold to guild member Tamira for 56 Gros, according to the terms of the contract.

Addendum: Guild staff Tosot was reported to be absent at his post this morning, and upon searching of his quarters found to have absconded with his possessions. Inventory of the stores and purse did not reveal any shortfall. There being no loss and no evidence of wrongdoing, Guildmaster Hassel-Hoffa resolved to not pursue the matter.

Prepping and Running the Game

Dave, one of the earliest members of our group, managed to join the session, bringing the number of players in the campaign to eight, and the number of PCs to a total of 14.

I opened the session by having the remaining members of the Fearsome Four bid the PCs farewell as they decided to seek their fortunes elsewhere, declaring the barrows to be an 'evil place'. The PCs asked where they were headed, but unfortunately I had not expected this and could not come up with an answer immediately - this was a lost opportunity as I could have planted a seed for future adventures.

I then introduced a new party to the guild, consisting of four warriors from Isheim, the Terrinoth analogue of the Norse realm. The Weiks (Terrinoth for Vikings, I imagine) first asked if Piper and Grak were Gio Gerbo and his servant Strigoi (see here), as they have heard about the two on their journey here - I had checked my calendar and realised that they would have passed Nornholt not long after the A Team's adventures there, and would have heard about them.

I then had the newcomers ask the PCs for tips and advice, partly to help Dave get up to speed on what the situation was. In return for their advice, the Weiks volunteered to clear the way into the underground complex for the party, which was my way of demonstrating that the northmen were competent, and to save us another skeleton fight... because I knew there would be more to come.

The party managed to defeat the skeletons set to guard the stele chamber easily. One of the skeletal archers there rolled a '1' on his attack roll, and I declared that the bowstring snapped, which I hoped reiterated the fact that bows and arrows required a supply chain to function.

While they were breaking into the next chamber, I had another party of skeletons attack them. This served the function of the wandering monster in old school dungeons, and hopefully gave the players the sense that even though they are now stronger, they cannot afford to be complacent. This lesson had to be taught again not long afterwards, however, as Piper's player had him pop his head too far into a sarcophagus, where he was seized by a mummy and reduced to zero hit points - fortunately for all of us he was revived with the loss of a point of Constitution, and did not die permanently like Laethen did, which would have been quite a blow for the player.

The party now have two magical items, which will give them a bit more bite against the enemies. Tamira had to take a huge loan from Brother Othar, but I guess that is the advantage of being a cleric of the church of Kellos.

The other event that took place was Tosot's abscondment. I decided that whomever was diverting supplies to the cultists would be feeling the heat by now, and would choose to flee at the first opportunity. The timing would be in the morning, soon after the adventurers and guild rangers have left for the barrows. I decided that he would leave with only his possessions, and not steal any of the guild's money or goods, which would give them a reason to pursue him. The players also asked to know which direction he headed towards, perhaps considering hunting him down; here I told them they had no way of knowing, as he had left when there were few people around to see him leave, even though in my mind I had an idea of which way he went. It would of course be possible for some of the PCs to try to track him down, but to do so would require not just splitting the party, but splitting the campaign - something which I was not prepared to do when already juggling seven players and 14 characters!

While the actual delving was not too different, the plot did move along a little, and very soon the cultists will feel the squeeze even more as I plan to have their informant within the guild abscond next, and their meagre store of bows and arrows will soon be exhausted. Depending on how much pressure the PCs apply on the cultists, I may decide to have the cultists' rivals approach them and propose an alliance to eliminate them altogether. That will shift the whole campaign to a higher gear, and move the focus from looting to thwarting a villain.

===

Now some thoughts on the religion of the people who built the barrows.

On reading more on the Weiks after the game, I realised that the new additions to the guild can be used for exposition, as the people of Isheim have their own mythology about Nordros. The PCs/players have been asking me about Nordros, but I have decided that knowledge of Nordros among the people of Terrinoth is scant, with the church possibly suppressing the knowledge. In the Terrinoth sourcebook it is stated that the people of Terrinoth depict Nordros as Weiqar's (equally) evil twin brother, thereby casting Weiqar as the greater evil, and Kellos, their chief deity, as the champion and saviour of mankind. The Weik, however, see Nordros in a more primal, more elemental role, as the god of ice and death.

I tend to view Nordros as a god of the Indo-European-equivalent people from whom the Weik and Terrinoth people are descended from, and that he initially represented their storm god and was depicted with lightning bolts, as the Indo-European storm god was. When these people migrated to the current-day Terrinoth region, they brought along with them their diseases, which the indigenous people had no immunity to; the spread of diseases to the original occupants of the land made it easier for the ancestors of the people who built the barrowmaze to conquer them and become the dominant culture of the region. The role diseases played in this was recognised, and Nordros was given the aspect of the god of disease, and also death, who prospered his worshippers by striking down their enemies. and the javelins which he was depicted with turned from lightning bolts to contagion. This accounted for the rise of the death cult among these people. Their obsession with death led to the construction of numerous burial mounds, as well as the giant underground burial complex. Presumably the death cult eventually turned to human sacrifice, and the ruling and priestly class were eventually overthrown and the culture faded. When the ancestors of the Weiks migrated further north, the death aspect of Nordros became associated with ice and cold, and he became an evil god.

The god Yasoda, however, was something I made up for what would have been the next arc for the A Team. I see him as a sun god, perhaps of the indigenous people of the land. The people recognised the association between the sun and plant growth, and he is identified with both nature (and the bounties of the forests) and agriculture, and thus called the 'giver of gifts'. Perhaps the cult of Yasoda survived the initial conquest and continued among the conquered people, and eventually spread to the elites, who eventually overthrew the death cults.

Under this mythology, Kellos, in the form that he is being worshipped by the people of Terrinoth, is perhaps a manifestation of Yasoda, or at least inherits his aspect as the sun god and the protector/provider of the people.

Chronicles of the Adventurers Guild #9

On the 2nd day of Ostar was held a funeral for guild member Laethen, who was slain by an undead on the day prior. Also cremated was the prisoner who had died on 30th Lenzin.

On orders of Guildmaster Hassel-Hoffa the inventory of the bows and arrows was examined, and no loss was found. By the Guildmaster's order henceforth all purchases from the guild store are to record the names of the members making the purchase.

==

On the 3rd day of Ostar guild members Tamira, Leowe, Madian, and Piper (see PC profiles here) returned to barrow #34, where they avenged the death of guild member Laethen and recovered the grave goods of the undead therein; however, they were attacked by several other undead which came upon them from another passage in the tomb, who by their appearance were tomb robbers recently raised to undeath. Guild member Tamira was able to fend them off by the power of Kellos, and the party returned in safety.

Grave goods recovered assessed to be 45 Gros in value, of which 16 Gros were disbursed to the members according to the contract.

==

On the 4th day of Ostar, guild members Tamira, Leowe, Madian, and Piper, along with guild members Findal, Marak, Grimmson, and Helmond, returned to barrow #36, where the latter were driven off by an incorporeal undead, in the suggestion of Tamira. However, they were unable to overcome the undead, and Marak fell down dead, and could not be revived.

== 

On this day the 5th day of Ostar a funeral was held for guild member Marak.

==

On the 6th day of Ostar guild memebrs Tamira, Leowe, Madian, and Piper returned once more to barrows #36, where they were finally able to vanquish the undead. The party recovered a stone sceptre topped with a skull, which was valued at 56 Gros. Guild member purchased the sceptre at the cost of 38 Gros, according to the terms of the contract.

Signed,

Jeras, Guild Chronicler

Prepping and Running the Game

Although the players only explore two barrows this session, it was quite an eventful one.

The first part of the session was about the funeral, when the players/PCs protested the decision to cremate the dead cultist at the same time as Laethen - I had thought nothing of it, and it was nice to see that they felt strongly enough about the cultist to raise the issue.

Thereafter the PCs had a discussion with the Guildmaster on the issue of the skeletons being armed with bows and arrows, which resulted in an audit of the guild stores - I had decided that the cult's contact had pre-empted this, and worked the books; and as the cult paid cash, there was no shortfall of gold even when it was not recorded whom the bows and arrows were sold to. The decision to keep a record going forward though is going to throw another spanner in the cultists' works. I will have to figure out a way for them to obtain a supply, and until they can do so the skeletons will likely run out of arrows if they meet the party a few more times. Meanwhile, their contact in the guild will decide that the game is up, and will flee in the middle of the night before his involvement is discovered.

I also imagine the guild will also realise that the cultists will need other supplies like food, and similarly monitor the supply. This will really put pressure on the cult, as well as their rivals also operating in Barrowmaze. Again, I need to come up with a solution or the operation of both parties will no longer be tenable. The cultists and I are really paying the price for the decision to arm the skeletons with bows and arrows - we have solved a tactical problem, only to cause a logistical one.

The other thing which happened which pleased me was when the players proposed to the NPC party to combine forces and loot the barrow which the latter had failed to. It is always gratifying when the players take the initiative to engage with NPCs.

Unfortunately, the fight against the wraith went badly for the guild members, and Marak went down, and when I rolled the Death Roll in the open I rolled a 1, which meant a 'real' death. Now the NPC party is based on the Dragon Warriors cover art, and I named them the Fearsome Four after the party in the module, and they have been a fixture in our campaign for many sessions now, providing a rival for the PCs and making the setting more than just a plain dungeoncrawl. I will most likely have the Fearsome Four take on another fighter in Marak's place - after all, that's what the PCs do after one of their own died.

One side effect of the deaths is that the funerals allowed me to advance the calendar a little faster than before, and the time will allow the actions of the various NPCs to take place: the church and the wizard's university will have time to receive news of the stele the PCs discovered and make an offer on it, the cultists will have time to come up with a solution to their supplies problem and implement it.

North Star Oathmark Skeleton Infantry

I was really excited when North Star announced their plan to release a set of multi-part plastic skeleton warriors with European Bronze Age-style armour and weapons. There are many sets of plastic skeletons on the market, but most have rather unrealistic looking skeletons and armour and weapons that are too fantastical for my taste. In my opinion GW has some of the best skeleton warriors available - I haven't bought any of Mierce Miniature ones - but these North Star ones are right up there with them.

One of the issues I have with skeleton warriors is their armour and weapons. Most fantasy wargames and RPGs are set in the medieval or pseudo-medieval era, and skeleton warriors are usually styled as the reanimated remains of the long-dead warriors (well, long enough for the flesh to have rotted away, at least); the idea of having skeleton warriors sporting what are contemporary armour and weapons just seem off to me. Zombies, yes. But for skeleton warriors, I want a more archaic style.

When I started my RPG campaign in Terrinoth, I imagined that the civilisations there went through a similar progression from Stone Age to Bronze Age and then Iron Age, as our own did. That means that when the PCs explore (aka loot) any ancient tombs, they should come across artefacts and remains from these eras.

When preparing for my Barrowmaze campaign, I wanted to give an European Bronze Age aesthetics to parts of the complex, and to that end I bought a few Etruscan warrior miniatures to paint as bronze statues - I wanted a visual contrast between the arms and armour the PCs had and those used by the civilisation that created the burial complex. I was unable to find any figures of skeleton warriors from the Bronze Age other than those of classical Greek style, which was not what I had in mind. So you can imagine my joy when I saw the first pictures of the North Star figures.

The figures are multi-part, with the torso and legs coming in one piece, and separate arms holding weapons, and heads/skulls. As with all multi-part skeleton figures, there is not a lot of surface area at the connection between the parts, which would make the assembled figure fragile. To overcome this, I drilled holes at the bases of the skulls to allow for a better fit between the neck and the skull, and for the arms I aimed for at least one more point of contact between the arm and the torso. 

For these archers, this meant having the bow or bow arm touching some part of the torso, or gluing the arrows to the bows (to the correct side of the bow, I might add) such that there was a whole mechanical connection running from one shoulder joint through the arrow, to the bow, and then back to the other shoulder joint. As you can see from the picture, there were a few ways one could do this and still make the poses look natural.

For the spearmen I either rested the butts of the spears on the bases, or else rested the shafts of the spears on the rims of the shields.

Similarly for the figures holding one-handed weapons, I glued the weapons to the rims of the shields, giving the look that they are shielding their weapon hands while waiting to strike.

These guys still need to be put on bases, and I will also need to eventually make a banner for them, but for now they are ready for my RPGs. I look forward to using them in my next game.

Chronicles of the Adventurers Guild #8

On the 1st day of Ostar, guild members Laethen, Madian, Kelso, and Francis (see PC profiles here), with the bearer Karl in employment, attempted to return to the chamber where the steles were found via mound #20, but were driven back by skeletal warriors, some of whom were armed with bows, which the members surmised must be supplied by some unknown party.

The party then instead descended to the underground complex via mound #16, where they explored to the north and then the west. Here they came upon a chamber, where the remains of two tomb-robbers were found. When the party attempted to discover the cause of their deaths, the corpses reanimated and attacked them, but were destroyed.

The party then explored a blocked door along the passage, and found behind it a cave, wherein was a stone statue of a humanoid figure with a tail and antlers upon his head, which the party surmised to be a representation of the god Kurnos. A pit, hidden by an illusory spell, was discovered in front of the statue, but nothing else of note or of value was found here.

Them proceeding south with the aim of reaching the chamber with the stele, they found their way once more blocked by skeletal warriors, and retreated to the surface.

Guild member Kelso then proposed that the party explore mound #35, which previously was used by tomb-robbers as a lair, and found within a passage leading to the underground complex, which was not discovered by the guild rangers previously. Descending the passage, the party was yet again assailed by skeletal warriors, and retreated once more.

Thrice thwarted in their attempt to reach the chamber of the steles, the party then decided instead to explore barrow #34. Here they found an antechamber with the statue of a bearded warrior. Taking the passage to the left, they came upon a chamber with a single sarcophagus. When they attempted to recover the grave goods within, the remains of the occupant within animated and attacked them. Guild member Laethan was struck upon his throat, and fell, and could not be revived. The party withdrew from the mound, and returned to the guild.

Signed,

Jeras, Guild Chronicler

Prepping and Running the Game

This session was significant for three reasons.

Firstly, I decided that the Death Cultists had to take some action to prevent the incursion of the guild to the underground complex, as they were interfering with their goal. An attack on the guild itself would be too drastic and would invite retaliation. A more "natural" way of  dissuading the guild members from entering the complex would be increase the number of "wandering monsters" in the complex by animating more skeletons, and arming them with missile weapons so they can fight on an equal footing with the adventurers. The problem of course is that while rusty swords and spears might still be able to cause some damage, there was no way centuries-old bows and arrows could realistically work. The cultists (i.e. I as the GM) had to make the decision to supply them with "modern" bows and arrows, which of course advertises the fact that someone with access to a supply of these things were arming the skeletons... I guess there is no perfect solution.

The second significant event in this session is that the players have finally made the connection between the overground map and the underground map, which allowed them to predict the likely entrances to the underground complex. Using this knowledge, they were able to deduce that mound #35, previously used as a lair by the cultists, would possibly contain an entrance to the complex. They were of course correct, but the cultists have anticipated this, and placed a party of skeletons here too. While they were unable to get to their destination, the players now know that someone was actively preventing them from doing so, and with the supply chain to the area being rather limited, it will be just a matter of time before they find information that will lead them to the cultists.

The third significant event was the death of a character. In Five Torches Deep, while it is easy for a low-level character to "go down", actual, permanent character death is still rare, happening only on a 1 in 20 chance. Almost every PC in the game so far have "gone down" and suffered loss in stat points, but this is the first time someone rolled a '1' on the d20 "death roll". Worse, it happened to a player who is new to the group and to the hobby. I was reluctant to make the result stick, but I decided that the possibility of death was what gave meaning to the game.

Due to the year-end holiday season, our next session will be in about four weeks. Have a good holiday, and let's all hope that next year will be a better one.

Chronicles of the Adventurers Guild #7

On the 30th Day of Lenzin,

Guild members Kimly, Tamira, Laethan, and Madian (see PC profiles here), with the bearer Lennard in employment, explored the underground chambers via the entrance in barrow #16.

Exploring to the south and then east, they came upon a chamber wherein the pillars took the forms of men and attacked them, and they retreated.

Proceeding east from there, they broke into the chamber to the north of the one which held the tomb of a dwarf, to find within it a single sarcophagus, the occupant of which rose as an undead and battled them. They were able to vanquish the undead and recover its grave goods.

Proceeding then further eastwards and then south, they came to a chamber, within which was a plinth, upon which a large bronze mirror, held in a gold-leaved ornamental frame, sat. Suspicious of traps, the party observed the room, and found a pit trap before the plinth, and protrusions in the facing stones upon the walls on either side of the chamber.

When the party entered the chamber, the protruding facing stones animated and took the forms of men, and attacked the members. While their weapons had little effect upon the guardians, the party were able to with clever use of ropes trip up the guardians, and then drag them into the pit, and recover the bronze mirror.

Proceeding then back west and then south again, with the intent of returning to the surface via the passage from barrow #20, the members heard the sounds of hammering upon stone. Suspecting unlicensed tomb robbers, the members investigated the source of the sound, and found within a large chamber six men in the act of breaking a white stele inside it. The men would not parley with the members, but immediately attacked them. The party feigned a retreat, and lured their pursuers to a junction, where they were able to trip them with a rope, and then slay two of their members; then, pursuing their erstwhile pursuers back to the chamber, struck down three more of them, and capture their ring-leader, who was a spell-user.

Within the chamber they found the white stele, which was set upon a black stone base. Upon the stele were inscriptions in the ancient Terrinoth tongue, which member Madian could read. The text on the stele, and also upon a stone door to the far side of the room, marked the chamber beyond as the tomb of one Druentes, a holy warrior of Aesodes, the "giver of gifts".

Also upon the floor was a broken black stele, made of a similar stone as the base which the white stele now sat. Upon this black stele the party discerned inscriptions in three scripts: the Terrinoth script, a script similar to it (which guild members have previously seen inscribed upon certain doors in the tombs), and the strange script which was found on the obelisk among the barrows.

The hour being late, the party then returned to the guild with their prisoner via barrow #20, which they discerned was whence the robbers entered the chambers below.

Grave goods recovered were valued at 66 Gros, of which 24 Gros were disbursed to the members according to the contract.

Signed,

Jeras, Guild Chronicler

Addendum: The prisoner, having been incarcerated in the guild cellar, was found dead on the morning after. It is not certain if he had died from the wounds sustained in the affray, or of some other cause. The matter being reported to Sergeant Tarran of Fort Rodric, the prisoner and the five men in his company were judge as tomb robbers upon the lands of the Baron, and the guild acquitted of their deaths.

Addendum 2: The matter of the black stele having been known, Brother Lothar had entered into a negotiation with Guildmaster Hassel-Hoffa for its recovery and purchase by the Church, and the expense for the labour for its recovery from the chamber had been duly approved by the Master.

Prepping and Running the Game

This session saw the addition of two new members to the guild and our group, playing the characters of Laethan and Madian. Both are new to the hobby, but took to the life of tomb-robbers pretty quickly.

With two level-1 PCs in the party, the party wisely ran away from fights they thought they could not win, and used their wits and non-weapon equipment instead. Laethan used the randomly-generated 10' chain as a bola in one fight, and the party used ropes to great effect in two fights.

The encounter with the cultists was something I had planned for for a while now. This encounter will advance the plot of the campaign via the discovery of the "Rosetta Stone", which will allow the party to read some of the inscriptions within Barrowmaze.

This encounter also put the plans of the cultists in jeopardy, as after having been denied the use of barrow #35 as their entry to the complex, I decided that they would use barrow #20; now that #20 has also been denied to them, I will need to find another entrance for them.

I imagine that these events will make the cultists realise that the activities of the guild is now interfering with their work in a way that cannot be ignored. How their leadership will respond to this fact I have yet to decide.

There is no game this coming week, so perhaps I will spend the time getting inside the heads of the cultists and decide what to do...

Chronicles of the Adventurers Guild #6

On the 28th Day of Lenzin,

Guild members Francis, Kelso, and Graves (see PC profiles here), with the bearer Lennard in employment, explored the underground complex via the entrance in barrow #16.

Entering a chamber to the north, they came upon a chamber with many burial niches, the remains within which were partly fossilised by the water that seeped through from the ceiling. When the party sought to recover the grave goods, the skeletons animated and began to attack them. Their magic having failed them, the party retreated, and returned to the Guild without goods.

Addendum: The twelve guild rangers sent by Guildmaster Hassel-Hoffa to secure barrow #35 reported it being abandoned.

On the 29th Day of Lenzin,

Guild members Kimly, Kelso, and Graves, with the bearer Lennard in employment, returned to the chamber the members had retreated from the day prior, and by luring the animated skeletons to a defile, vanquished them and recovered the grave goods.

Then, exploring to the east and then north, they ventured into a long corridor where the dragon hybrid was seen fleeing from. Here they found signs of a skirmish, and blood trails leading to the north. Following the trail, they came upon a chamber, within which was a stone altar, upon which were signs of a recent sacrifice. It is not known who was sacrificed, nor who performed the sacrifice.

Leave the chamber, they turned south and entered a blocked chamber, the floor which was flooded. Exploring the chamber, Kimly was attacked by three undead, their forms preserved by the peat-stained water, which disgorged leeches from their mouths. The party was forced to retire from the chamber, and was pursued by the undead, which they then defeated. Returning to the flooded chamber, they were confronted by an incorporeal wraith, which soon vanished. The party was able to recover grave goods from bodies found under the water.

Exploring then to the west and then north, the party came upon a pair of stone double-doors, upon of which was the relief of a man (god?) holding several javelins in one hand, and a tablet with inscriptions upon it in the other. The figures of many men, in apparel of warriors and priests, were depicted below.

Entering through the door, they found a chamber, within which was a stone statue of the same man (god) depicted on the door.  To the north was a blocked door, which the party did not seek to enter, for they had found a hidden door on the western wall. Entering through this hidden door, they followed a passage that led west and then north to anther blocked door, this one unadorned.

While they were attempting to break the door, they were assailed by skeletal warriors that emerged through doors hidden in alcoves along the passage. After defeating the skeletons, the party entered the chamber to the north, and found a single undead figure standing by a sarcophagus. The party was overcomes with fear, and fled.

Grave goods recovered were valued at 101 Gros, 33 Gros of which were disbursed to the members according to the terms of the contract.

Signed,

Jeras, Guild Chronicler

Prepping and Running the Game

This session caught me a little off guard.

The first outing pretty much ended before it started, with the two spell-users in the party failing the spell rolls almost immediately, forcing the players to return to the guild empty-handed.

The next expedition was much more profitable, in terms of gold, XPs, and plot.

They chose to go up the corridor where the dragon hybrid fought the cultists in session 2. The dragon hybrid's party came off worse, so I decided that the losers were... recovered by the cultists, and brought to one of the rooms which had a sacrificial altar in it. I actually bought and painted a Reaper Bones altar, which is shown in the photo. There was little the players could learn about the identities of those who were sacrificed and who did the sacrificing, but it was clear to them that there were more than just the usual looters running around in the complex.

The flooded chamber was nearly a TPK, as somehow my players are still making the mistake of having one character explore the room while the rest waited by the door. The wraith is supposed to advance the plot too, but unfortunately none of those present was a worshipper of Kellos, which would have unlocked the plot point. I suspect the party will return here again.

After this encounter the players took me by surprise when they decided to move far north, to a part of the complex that is "above their paygrade". In general, the "level" of the dungeon increased as one moved further away from the western part of the main entrance - the great mound, or barrow #12; however, as Barrowmaze is a single-level dungeon, there was no easy way for the GM to signpost to the players that they were moving into a more dangerous part of the dungeon. I tried to do so by letting the players know that this part of the complex seemed unexplored, and I even had Lennard express reservations about passing through those imposing double-doors, on account of the fact that so far, it seemed that the more elaborate the door, the more dangerous what was behind it turned out to be. The players, however, seemed to take that as: the greater the risks, the richer the loot.

Combat with the undead in the last chamber would certainly have resulted in a TPK, so I decided to ask the PCs to make a Wisdom save, which thankfully two of them failed.

I had earlier planned to up the stakes of the campaign by revealing more of the metaplot this session, but one thing that I have learned is that the tone of the session depends a lot on the composition of my players. Some of my players are more "serious" and interested in the plot, and some are less serious and more interested in the loot. When the serious players are not in a session, I worry that any information I give about the greater threat lurking in the background may be lost on the players, so I tend to want to reserve them for the session when one or more of the serious players are present.

Next session will see two new players join the table and the Guild, so stay tuned for more.